A Murder of Crowes
by Wilusa
Summary: A short sequel to 'Courting Trouble.'


DISCLAIMER: Carnivale and its canon characters are the property of HBO and the show's producers; no copyright infringement is intended.

_Note:_ For any reader who doesn't know, a group of crows is correctly called, not a "flock" or some such term, but "a murder of crows."

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_The tap on the door of the office suite was so light that secretary Sarah Feldman barely heard it._

_She looked up as the door opened. "Yes?"_

_Then she recognized the person in the doorway. __**Here in L.A.? Coming to Nate's office? Why?**_

_But before she could say a word, she found herself staring into the darkest eyes she'd ever seen. Pitch-black orbs with not a trace of white around them, eyes that bored into her soul..._

_The demon - for demon it surely was - loomed over her. It didn't touch her. But it hissed...and she was whipped out of her chair, felt an agonizing wrench of her neck as she crumpled to the floor._

_She felt nothing else. Ever again._

_The killer glanced at the phone, and willed it to begin ringing. To stop after ten rings...that would be just the number needed to bring Nathan Stern and Tommy Dolan out of the inner office._

_By the time they found the body of the girl Stern loved, the killer would be gone. Having touched nothing but the doorknob - and even that, with a gloved hand_.

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_**Three nights later.**_

Justin Crowe spoke softly into the microphone, almost caressing it. It was not, of course, a KZAK microphone: he'd changed stations some time ago.

"It's becoming clear, brothers and sisters, that truth will out...and the wages of sin must be paid.

"Tommy Dolan and his corrupt lawyer, Nathan Stern, are in jail tonight...charged with the brutal murder of Stern's defenseless secretary, Sarah Feldman. They tried to claim she was killed by a person or persons unknown, while they were in Stern's inner office with the door closed. But the Los Angeles police saw through this weak fabrication.

"There was no evidence of a struggle in the outer office where the girl died. She never screamed, as she surely would have if a stranger had approached her desk and tried to grab her. A scream would have been heard by other tenants in the building. And the only fingerprints found anywhere in the office, even on the doorknob, were those of the victim and the two men - Dolan having been Stern's first appointment of the day.

"It is hard to explain how the girl's neck was broken. But it must have been done manually, somehow, by an almost incredibly strong man - or by two men of normal strength. The police are assuming the latter. They postulate that one of those men grabbed her from behind, throttling her before she could make a sound. And who but her employer could walk up behind a secretary, looking over her shoulder, without arousing her suspicion?

"Why did they kill her? There's only one possible answer, brothers and sisters. The police see it as clearly as I do.

"As I've said all along, Tommy Dolan set the orphanage fire, and committed perjury - with the complicity of his lawyer - when he denied it. Dolan can never be retried for the arson murder, having once been acquitted. But he could be tried for perjury, and his lawyer could face charges as well. Stern's secretary must have overheard them discussing what they'd done. They realized that, and knew she'd go to the authorities as soon as she could. But she didn't know they were aware she'd overheard them, so they were able to catch her by surprise.

"Stern claims the secretary was his fiancee, and it's unthinkable that he would have killed her. But she wasn't wearing a ring - and it turns out the supposed 'engagement' was so recent that not even her parents knew about it. A likely story!

"It may seem tragic that an innocent young woman had to die, for the perfidy of these men to be exposed. But who are we to question the ways of God?"

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Iris Crowe, glued to the radio, listened bitterly to her brother's spiel. She knew he'd be late getting home from the studio in L.A. But she waited up.

When he trudged into the house, she was ready for him. Sure no one else was nearby, she hauled off and slapped him.

He staggered backward, momentarily too stunned to do more than stare at her.

"Yes, I know," she snarled. "You're perfectly capable of killing _me_ without laying a hand on me, too. But by now, life with you sickens me so that I don't even care."

"Killing you...without laying a hand on you?" His eyes widened. "Iris, do you think I killed the Feldman girl?"

"For God's sake," she spat at him, "don't try to deny it! I saw you kill a man that way when you were six years old. I can understand your wanting revenge on Tommy and that lawyer of his. But why didn't you just kill _them_? Why murder an innocent woman?"

"Keep your voice down. Please. You'll wake Sofie and the maid." After a nervous glance at the stairs, he pushed her into the kitchen and closed the door behind them.

Then he sagged into a chair. "Listen to me, Iris. I didn't kill Sarah Feldman. When I think about it, I can understand why you'd assume I did. But I hadn't decided what, if anything, I could do to get back at Tommy and Stern. Three days ago, I couldn't have summoned up the energy to drag myself into L.A. - I could barely do it tonight.

"What I said on the radio? Obviously, I know Tommy didn't set the fire. But what I said about this killing, I really believe. He did commit perjury. And the only way I can explain the girl's death is that the police are right - he and Stern killed her because of something she'd overheard.

"I don't know how they managed to break her neck, but they did."

For the first time in weeks, Iris took a good look at him. And saw not a demon, but a bone-weary middle-aged man, struggling to cope with health problems she didn't fully understand.

She sighed. "I'm sorry, Alexei. I believe you."

After he stumbled off to bed, she sat alone in the kitchen, thinking about the murder.

Even if Tommy Dolan and Nathan Stern could somehow break a woman's neck with their bare hands, why would they go to all that trouble? Why not simply strangle her?

She found herself thinking of Justin's strong-willed young wife. The wife only she knew was his daughter.

Sofie had taken an interest in the Dolan trial. To put it mildly. Despite being pregnant - with a child that wasn't Justin's - she'd insisted on going to Sacramento for the entire week. Not as Mrs. Justin Crowe, but as an anonymous face in the crowd. Since her return home, she'd been aloof and taciturn as always. Iris had stopped trying to understand her, or to keep track of her comings and goings.

_Alexei's daughter_...

_Alexei could break a man's neck, without touching him, when he was only six._

_I know __**something**__ happened in that cornfield. Could Alexei's daughter possibly -?_

Iris got no sleep that night.

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Sofie had listened to Justin's radio broadcast with a smirk on her face.

In Sacramento, "widow" Betty Jones - an alias she'd used even before the man named Jones had a wife named Elizabeth, and before she'd shot him - had quickly identified Sally Feldman as Nathan Stern's secretary, and struck up a friendship with her. Sally had been all too ready to sympathize with a young, pregnant woman who was trying to cope with her husband's death, fill the void in her life, by becoming a "fan" of trials.

Sofie had been annoyed, though, when she found that Sally couldn't be pumped - wouldn't reveal any of the surprises Stern had planned.

_But that wasn't why I killed her_.

She wanted to believe she'd killed Sally so Dolan and Stern would be blamed, all Justin's enemies punished. Much as she loathed Justin, his enemies were her enemies. She hoped to supplant him and seize control of his movement. And she didn't want that movement to be in tatters!

But deep down, she knew the truth.

She'd killed Sally because she'd seen her with Nathan Stern. Because Sally had what she herself craved, and could never have.

Because Sally was in love, and loved in return.

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The End


End file.
